Bad Attachment?

[Nicole Schneider]

My 18 month old lab is a great dog. We haven't really had any problems with her until recently she started chewing little things. In particular-my stuff! If I lay with a blanket on the couch, she will chew on it the next day. (we have gone through 4 blankets now) Today, I must have talked on the phone before I left and she chewed that. She is definitely attached to me and I am her master. My husband and I were wondering if she has a bad attachment to me because she is very dependent on me. Has anyone ever heard of that?? My husband plays with her and works with her too, but it is not the same. She loves my husband too, but she always follows me around everywhere, gets more excited when I get home, cries when I leave, etc.
A little backround on her: She was the last pup in the litter and the owner was in love with her and almost kept her. The owner took her everywhere with her. I got her when she was 11 weeks old. She was crated until she was 10 months, and she was great until recently. She is extremely sensitive too.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
:dogrun:

[Melissa Brunoehler]

Hi Nicole!~

The 1st thing I would do is put your dog on Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF)
NILIF is great because it help your dog to become less anxious & wil help with her doggie manners. Please click here to read about NILIF http://www.doggiebagonline. com/articles/article.php?articlei d=15

Also make sure you make your leaving & returning very low key-To the point where you are ignoring her the first few minutes you walk in the door. This will help her realize that you not being there is not a huge deal.

If she is chewing things up, make sure there isn't stuff around for her to chew. Do you still have her crate out for her? If not, put it back out so that she has access to it. You might even want to baby gate her in a room (that has her crate in it) when you're gone. Make sure she has atleast one interactive toy to occupy herself with while you're gone.

Let us know if you need anything else.


My 18 month old lab is a great dog. We haven't really had any problems with her until recently she started chewing little things. In particular-my stuff! If I lay with a blanket on the couch, she will chew on it the next day. (we have gone through 4 blankets now) Today, I must have talked on the phone before I left and she chewed that. She is definitely attached to me and I am her master. My husband and I were wondering if she has a bad attachment to me because she is very dependent on me. Has anyone ever heard of that?? My husband plays with her and works with her too, but it is not the same. She loves my husband too, but she always follows me around everywhere, gets more excited when I get home, cries when I leave, etc.
A little backround on her: She was the last pup in the litter and the owner was in love with her and almost kept her. The owner took her everywhere with her. I got her when she was 11 weeks old. She was crated until she was 10 months, and she was great until recently. She is extremely sensitive too.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
:dogrun:

[Jill Ramsey]

Nicole,
My black lab is 18 months, too. He still uses his crate. That's "his place", and he loves it. We tried leaving Finnegan out in the kitchen with the doors gated a few months ago, but he was chewing also. So he went back into the crate when we weren't home. We are now leaving him out and slowly increasing the time. So far, so good. As he gets older, he doesn't seem to do the destructive chewing so much.

Finnegan is also "my dog". He will listen to me (even though he goes to obedience class with my husband as the trainer). He looks to me for his food, when he wants to go out, etc.
What we have done is to give my husband more of the responsiblities of his care (especially now since we have a new puppy).
I was the one who was home first to take Finn out and feed him. Now my husband spends more time with him, takes him in the truck more, etc. They are creating their own bond.

I hope some of this helps, and good luck.

[Nicole Schneider]

Thank you both for your replies. Melissa, I read the NILIF link that you gave me and I am going to start right away. I do this partially right now but I need to tighten up on it and maybe that is way she is regressing a little with her behavior.
Jill, I do love labs too. They are wonderful! You will definitely get a kick out of this: Gracie, our lab, made her way out of any room that we put her in with a baby gate. When she was very little she would literally scale the gate to climb over it. So we put her in a cage as she could have really hurt herself. After a couple of months we tried it again as she was bigger so we did not think that she could get herself out. Oh yeah, she did though! So finally after 10 months, we started bringing her out slowly (just like you). She has been totally fine until about 1 month ago. We are going to bring the crate in and just leave it there to see what happens. It should be interesting.
The first 2 years of a Lab are always exciting!
By the way, Gracie looks exactly like your lab. Thinner face and cute ears! One of Gracie's ears flips up sometimes though.
Thanks again to both of you! :D

[Nikki Jackson]

in addition to the other great advice, i find with big chewing dogs
that if you give them a little toy box with just their toys in it,
when they are bored they rifle through and they can decide what
they want to play with, much more exciting than if the toys are
always out. My male goes on binges where he just has to get to the bottom,
it's hilarious. :dogrun: